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Washington Huskies at UCLA Bruins: Preview and Pick

Washington Huskies at UCLA Bruins: Preview and Pick

The Friday night college football game of the week features a Pac-12 meeting between two very talented teams. The Washington Huskies will hit the college football highway to take on the vastly improved UCLA Bruins. After defeating the Arizona Wildcats, the Bruins now have a modest two game winning streak after losing back to back games in the middle of their schedule. At home for this exciting clash they will look to keep winning against the Huskies.

Washington Huskies at UCLA Bruins Odds

The college football odds for this game will favor the Bruins as the home team, but it should take into account how well that the Huskies have played this season at times. Make sure to check for the latest line at the top rated online sportsbooks before placing a wager on this game.

The Huskies come into this game after a flawless game against Colorado. Keith Price completed 22 of 29 passes for 312 yards and two passing scores, all in the first half. He also added on two touchdowns on the ground. Sankey made his 23 carry, 143-yard, one score game look effortless. The defense got in on the action with a Tre Watson pick-six and a 53-yard fumble recovery touchdown from Marcus Peters. That kind of effort will be needed for this team if they hope to take down the Bruins at home.
The Bruins are feeling good about a road win and will be motivated to win big in front of the home crowd.

The college football betting trends for this game show how both teams have negative angles for this game. Washington is 1-3-1 straight up in its last 5 games and 1-4 straight up in its last 5 games on the road. Washington is 4-10 against the spread (ATS) in its last 14 games on the road and 4-9-1 ATS in its last 14 games when playing UCLA.

The total has gone over in 4 of Washington's last 5 games on the road but the total has gone under in 5 of Washington's last 6 games when playing UCLA. UCLA is 6-2-1 straight up in its last 9 games and 13-3 straight up in its last 16 games at home. The total has gone over in 6 of UCLA's last 8 games at home and UCLA is 5-0 straight up in its last 5 games when playing at home against Washington.

Washington Huskies at UCLA Bruins Pick

With plenty of time before kickoff we will wait for more information to come in before we select a side on this contest. Make sure to check back on the day of the game to see who we select as our winner for this big game.

The Colorado safety took a step in front of the goal line and tried to stop Washington’s hard-charging quarterback.

That Keith Price bulldozed through the defender and into the end zone served as a symbolic moment for the Huskies — symbolic not only of what they did to the beaten-down Buffaloes but of the hard-charging march UW hopes it started Saturday night.

Price was as cool and efficient as ever in the first half before giving way to a dominant UW defense in the second half as the Huskies routed Colorado 59-7 to kick-start a defining November stretch.

“On to the next,” UW coach Steve Sarkisian told his team afterward.

That Washington (6-3, 3-3 Pac-12) became bowl eligible before an announced crowd of 66,599 at Husky Stadium was an afterthought as the Huskies said they immediately turned their attention to the nationally-televised showdown Friday night against UCLA at the Rose Bowl, where UW hasn’t won since 1995.

After dominating Colorado (3-6, 0-6), Price said the Huskies already had turned on their locker-room televisions to tune in to UCLA’s game against Arizona late Saturday night. The senior quarterback, with a short week ahead, said he planned to study film of the Bruins before going to bed, and the first thing he planned to do Sunday morning was study more.

“We’re going to have to be focused, and we’re going to have to finish strong,” Price said. “This is the time of year when you find out what kind of team you have.”

The Huskies, of course, are trying to climb above the plateau of three consecutive 7-6 seasons. To do that this month, they’ll have to win two of their final three regular-season games: at UCLA on Friday, at Oregon State on Nov. 23 or at home in the Apple Cup the day after Thanksgiving.

The performance against Colorado, Sarkisian said, sets the Huskies up almost perfectly for this short week. The Huskies didn’t attempt a single punt Saturday night, and they didn’t attempt a single pass in the second half after Price completed 22 of 29 passes for 312 yards and two touchdowns.

Price also rushed for two touchdowns, including his whirling, 18-yard scamper in the second half, finishing off that run by plowing through Colorado safety Parker Orms.

“He put the truck-stick on him,” UW running back Bishop Sankey said with a grin.

Sankey was in typical form, rushing for 143 yards and a touchdown on 23 carries as he moved past Greg Lewis into fourth place on UW’s career rushing list with 2,931 yards.

“Tonight was just another step — another team in the way of where we need to be,” UW freshman receiver John Ross said.

Colorado lost its 14th consecutive Pac-12 game; 13 of those 14 have been by at least 20 points.

The Huskies ran 57 plays in the first half and had 464 yards of total offense in taking a 31-7 halftime lead. Price threw a jump ball to 6-foot-6 tight end Austin Seferian-Jenkins, who hauled in the 15-yard reception for a touchdown with two seconds left in the half.

“We were really efficient,” Sarkisian said of his Huskies, who finished with 628 yards of total offense.

UW’s defense then dominated the third quarter.

Cornerback Marcus Peters tipped a pass by Colorado true freshman quarterback Sefo Liufau on the Buffaloes’ first drive of the second half, leading to an interception by UW backup safety Tre Watson — who returned it 84 yards for a touchdown.

It was UW’s first defensive touchdown of the season. Eight minutes later, the Huskies had another when Josh Shirley forced a fumble that Peters scooped up and returned 53 yards for a touchdown.

It was the first time UW has scored two defensive touchdowns in a game since 2002, and they pushed the Huskies’ lead to 52-7.

UW safety Sean Parker added a third-quarter interception of Liufau, the Tacoma product making his fourth start for Colorado. Liufau finished 12 of 22 for 160 yards with one touchdown, two interceptions and two sacks before being pulled in the fourth quarter.

Price, meanwhile, completed nine of his first 11 passes to help the Huskies to a 10-0 lead in the first 8½ minutes.

“I had a lot of fun,” Price said. “I think that was the main thing, just get back to having fun, get our tempo going and just getting in a rhythm.”

Colorado didn’t do much to stop the Huskies, who hope the fun this month has only just started.

Steve Sarkisian will readily remind you that Washington does not look past any team on its schedule. Once the Huskies finished dismantling Colorado on Saturday night, though, it was quickly on to the next one for Washington's head coach.

The turnaround will be ever so important this week for Washington since the Huskies will be operating on a short schedule with a Friday night matchup at No. 13 UCLA. That meant speeding up the practice schedule so Monday's workout was a blend of what the team would accomplish in two days in order to prepare for a rare Friday game.

Despite coming off a 59-7 win over the Buffaloes on Saturday, Sarkisian insisted there was plenty to fix in the short week.

Even though the team did not attempt a pass during the second half and put up one of the highest point totals in school history, there were issues Sarkisian was able to detect specifically on the offensive line.

"We had a couple communication breakdowns," Sarkisian said. "One of the sacks, we lacked communication from the tight end to the tackle on the right side of the line, which caused the sack there. Another, just a couple times we got just a little penetration and when we had our pullers come around, we got knocked off."

Friday could be a good time to fix those woes, as the Bruins defense has just one sack in the last two games.

But UCLA has yet to give up more than 23 points at home this year, and despite not getting to the quarterback, the Bruins have forced three turnovers during the last two games. After dropping back-to-back contests to nationally ranked Stanford and Oregon, UCLA has won two straight to regain its footing.

"It's going to be a hard-fought ballgame," Sarkisian said. "That's a good football team at UCLA. It won't be an easy environment to play in on a Friday night. We have to be mentally prepared for kind of a physical football game from a physical standpoint but also mentally, the mental toughness that's going to be needed in this game because it's going to go back and forth.

"They're going to make some plays. They're going to make their tackles and we have to be able to move onto that next play and focus on the task at hand. For us, from the next step standpoint it's doing that and it's doing that for 60 minutes against a really good football team on the road."

A mid-season three-game losing streak put the Huskies on the precipice of yet another seven-win season, but like UCLA, Washington has put together two wins in a row. The Huskies have set themselves up for a late-season surge by routing California and Colorado as expected, but it's the final three games that will ultimately determine the success of the season.

After traveling to UCLA, the Huskies go to Oregon State before closing the season on another short week against rival Washington State.

"We're relentless," Washington QB Keith Price said. "It don't matter who we play, we come out and put our best foot forward. I can say that for almost every game we've played besides Arizona State. Our guys, it doesn't matter who we play against, whether it's Cal or Oregon or Stanford or Colorado, we're going to put our best foot forward and hope that's good enough to win."

It all started with an innocent radio interview back in 2006, when he said he’d all but bear-crawl from Atlanta to Seattle if the University of Washington football job ever came open.

Jim Mora had to apologize in a written statement.

He was, after all, head coach of the Atlanta Falcons and the Huskies already had a coach.

“Cost me my job,” he said Tuesday.

That day in ’06, Mora was being Mora, a little impetuous, a little hair-trigger.

But to a lot of UW football fans, he was being passionate and heartfelt, and for them, that affair became a mission statement on his career goals.

The stars have never quite aligned, however, leading us to Friday night’s Washington-UCLA game in Pasadena, which features a guy from Southern California, Steve Sarkisian, leading the Huskies, and an alum with a deep feeling for the UW and Seattle, Mora, coaching the team from Southern California.

It seemed so perfect, the union of Mora and the UW.

He’s a coach qualified enough to have headed two NFL teams, and it’s a program that at times after 2000 had a crying need for fresh, spirited leadership.

But not every relationship that seemed meant to be is meant to be. At least that’s the take-away as the Huskies visit the Rose Bowl in a key game for both programs.

“If that job’s open, you’ll find me at the head of the line with my resume in hand ready to take that job,” Mora said on KJR-AM back in 2006 in an interview with hosts Dave Mahler and Hugh Millen.

How invested was Mora in Washington? Well, he was a walk-on player at UW in some big years in the early 1980s. His dad Jim worked with and for Don James, which brought the families so close together the younger Mora was babysat by James’ elder daughter Jill, and in turn, Jim later baby-sat the James’ younger daughter, Jeni.

Mora’s wife Shannon is a former UW cheerleader, and earlier this fall, when he hatched a surprise 50th birthday party for her, the site was downtown Seattle, not Los Angeles.

Tuesday, Mora did his best to hose off the old controversy. He said on the Pac-12 teleconference call that his words in that radio interview were “a joke. It wasn’t in any way, shape or form serious.”

Mora added that the Huskies “have never approached me.”

But they are believed to have at least sniffed around at his availability a couple of times.

Let’s go back more than a decade, to February 2003, when Mora, then a career assistant in the NFL, was defensive coordinator with the San Francisco 49ers. Surely he had a front-row seat to a clumsily conceived interview the coach at his alma mater, Rick Neuheisel, had with the Niners for their opening.

Two seasons later, after Neuheisel had been fired and the Huskies were seeking to replace his successor, Keith Gilbertson, Mora was late in his first year as a head coach with the Falcons.

The Times identified Mora as a UW target, but the timing just didn’t line up. Mora was in the process of taking the Falcons to the NFC Championship Game.

Washington hired Tyrone Willingham.

By Willingham’s third year, in 2007, the Huskies were struggling mightily, unable to gain any traction, leaving him 11-25 at UW.

Mora was much closer now, fired in Atlanta and in his first year coaching defensive backs for the Seahawks under Mike Holmgren.

Huskies fans who yearned for Mora on the sideline have to know now: That was the year, the year it could have worked.

It didn’t. After some internal anguish and consideration of Willingham’s future, the Huskies decided to keep him.

A few weeks later, Mora returned to Seattle from the East Coast. He had been interviewing for the head-coaching job with the Washington Redskins.

After Mora huddled with Seahawks general manager Tim Ruskell, the club named Mora a coach-in-waiting whenever Holmgren stepped down. It was no doubt a move in response to the Redskins’ pursuit, but perhaps with the secondary intent of quelling Mora-to-the-Huskies buzz. (Attempts to reach Ruskell and then-CEO Tod Leiweke for comment were unsuccessful.)

As the Willingham regime soured toward its 0-12 conclusion in 2008, the Huskies had interest in Mora. And in fact, the topic was so overheated in Seattle, he released a statement through the Seahawks midway through their season that he wasn’t a candidate for the UW job. He stayed true to his status as coach-designate with the Seahawks and took over in 2009 after Holmgren exited.

Sarkisian came aboard, and the Seahawks jettisoned Mora after one year.

UCLA fetched Mora after the 2011 season, and Tuesday, he was saying about his alma mater, “I think they’ve got the right guy in Steve Sarkisian.”

Friday night, Mora will look across the sideline at the program he once said he was dying to lead, and find out how somebody else is doing with it.

With Jordon James still hobbling from his nagging ankle injury, coach Jim Mora has decided to get creative with UCLA's running game.

Now everyone can't wait to see the two-way freshman that has been receiving all the attention.

Coming off a breakout debut on offense, linebacker Myles Jack could see more time in the 13th-ranked Bruins' backfield Friday night when they try to keep their Pac-12 South hopes alive with an eighth straight home win against Washington.

James missed three games after suffering a severe ankle sprain at Utah on Oct. 3. The standout running back attempted to return against Colorado on Nov. 2, but reaggravated the injury and had to sit out again in Saturday's 31-26 win at Arizona.

UCLA's coaches had planned all along to use Jack on offense at some point, and they finally got around to it with James out of action against the Wildcats.

Jack, who was heavily recruited as a running back but wanted to have a chance to play linebacker, led the Bruins (7-2, 4-2 Pac-12) with 120 yards on six carries. His 66-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter proved to be the difference in the team's second straight victory.

On defense, the 18-year-old finished with eight tackles - one for a loss - to go along with two pass break-ups and a fumble recovery.

"It worked, but there's a saturation point," Mora said. "Everyone is going to want to see this and they think it's great, but what they forget is coaches are now prepared for it and they're going to have an answer."

It's unclear how much Jack - who was on the field between 115 to 118 plays, according to Mora - will continue to go both ways once James returns. But with James uncertain for Friday, the Bellevue, Wash., native might get another opportunity against the team located just across the lake from his hometown.

"It's depends on the situation," said Mora, whose team will try to take advantage of a Washington defense that has allowed 209.5 rushing yards per game over its last four. "We're not going to do something just to gimmick. It's got to have merit."

The Huskies also will have to deal with Brett Hundley, who has connected on 37 of 49 passes for 500 yards with four touchdowns in his last two games after throwing for a career-low 64 yards in a 42-14 loss at Oregon on Oct. 26.

Trailing No. 21 Arizona State by one game in the Pac-12 South Division, UCLA hopes to keep its conference title hopes alive by extending its home dominance in this series.

The Bruins have won by an average of 13.9 points during their seven-game run at home in the series, winning 24-23 in the most recent meeting at the Rose Bowl on Nov. 7, 2009. UCLA and Washington haven't met since the Huskies' 24-7 victory in Seattle on Nov. 18, 2010.

"It'll be a good game," said Mora, who played at Washington and began his coaching career with the Huskies. "It'll be exciting. They're a good football team and there's a lot at stake. It'll be a fun environment in the Rose Bowl."

There's no question who will be getting the ball a lot for the Huskies (6-3, 3-3). Bishop Sankey had his seventh 125-yard game of the season last Saturday, racking up 143 and a touchdown on 23 carries in a 59-7 win over Colorado.

Sankey, third in the nation at 145.0 yards per game, has totaled 384 and three scores in his last two games. He'll face a UCLA defense that allowed Arizona's Ka'Deem Carey, the country's second-leading rusher, to run for 149 yards and a touchdown.

Following a three-game losing streak to No. 5 Stanford, then-No. 2 Oregon and Arizona State, Washington has gotten back on track by racking up 1,270 total yards in blowout wins over California and the Buffaloes.

Keith Price seeks his third straight 300-yard passing game after completing 68.9 percent of his attempts for 688 yards and four touchdowns in those victories.

The Huskies, however, are likely to find things a bit more difficult against one of the top linebacking corps in the country - a unit that includes Jack, star Anthony Barr, Eric Kendricks and Jordan Zumwalt.

The Bruins have been particularly tough at the Rose Bowl, allowing an average of 16.5 points while winning their four home games.

''It's going to be a hard-fought ballgame,'' Washington coach Steve Sarkisian said. ''That's a good football team at UCLA. It won't be an easy environment to play in on a Friday night."

With the Bruins' running backs banged up, linebacker Myles Jack could be in line for more work to build on his spotlight-grabbing performance against Arizona, where the true freshman rushed for 120 yards and one touchdown on six carries. Whether Jack can handle double duty and still stay productive against the Huskies' up-tempo offense and strong collection of skill players, including running back Bishop Sankey and tight end Austin Seferian-Jenkins, will be a delicate balancing act for Jim Mora and his coaching staff.

Stanford and Oregon, California and Colorado. Those teams bookend the Pac-12 Conference football standings.

Then there are the huddled masses — some of which don't actually huddle — yearning to break out from the middle of the Pac.

UCLA and Washington, who play at the Rose Bowl on Friday night, will be trying to improve their place.

The Bruins, who are 7-2 overall, 4-2 in Pac-12 play, and Huskies (6-3, 3-3) are trying to reach the upper echelon. UCLA needs to keep pace with Arizona State, which it trails by a game in the South Division.

"You can point to Oregon and Stanford up at the top, but there is probably another six or seven schools after them that, man, everyone is really, really close," said Washington Coach Steve Sarkisian.

Separation is the goal.

"Everyone wants to be that name, where people say, 'We have to play UCLA this week,'" said Bruins receiver Jordan Payton. "Every day we have to improve how everyone looks at us."

If UCLA wins its remaining three games, it reaches the Pac-12 championship game for a third consecutive season. That would mean another crack at Stanford or Oregon.

UCLA, ranked 13th, could then make the argument it belongs in Pac-12 high society.

"That's the type of mentality we like to have," said linebacker Jordan Zumwalt. "We can't go out thinking, 'We want this really bad; we might get this.' We have to think, 'This is ours; we have to have it.' These three games are going to make us who we are."

Washington, too, can do some image polishing.

A three-game sweep to finish the season won't get the Huskies to the title game, but it would leave them 9-3, which would be their best record since going 11-1 in 2001, when they won the conference and the Rose Bowl.

"I think we have the pieces in place to make that run," Sarkisian said. "Now we have to put that into action. We haven't won in the Rose Bowl in a long time."

Washington's last victory over UCLA at the Rose Bowl was in 1995, when Sarkisian was a junior quarterback at Brigham Young. Ending that seven-game losing streak would give the Huskies seven victories for a fourth consecutive season.

Moving off that number is important for Sarkisian, whose future at Washington was in question before the season began.

Moving too far off that number might have him leaving Seattle anyway. Sarkisian is said to be in the mix for the USC coaching job. He was an assistant under Pete Carroll for seven seasons. The speculation began soon after USC's cardinal-faced loss to Arizona State, when Lane Kiffin was fired in the most dramatic airport scene since "Casablanca."

After Kiffin's ouster, Sarkisian told reporters, "I'm extremely thankful for the opportunity I have to be the head football coach at the University of Washington. … It's an awesome place to be. I have never once, and I will never, comment on hypothetical scenarios."

Still, Sarkisian seems to be building the perfect USC resume. He took over a program that was in far worse shape than USC's current situation. The Huskies were 0-12 in 2008.

And, like Carroll, who traded barbs during his tenure with Stanford's Jim Harbaugh, Sarkisian already has a feud with Stanford's coach. After a 31-28 loss to the Cardinal, Sarkisian accused Stanford of having players fake injuries to slow the Huskies' offense. Stanford Coach David Shaw testily denied the allegations.

A victory over UCLA at the Rose Bowl could mark another line on USC's check list.

As for the Bruins, what they are playing for is clear, according to Mora: "To come out of the Pac-12 South," and play in the conference title game.

"There won't be any Oregon anymore because Stanford is going to win out," Zumwalt said. "So it will be Stanford and UCLA."

With a critical showdown with Arizona State looming, the 13th- ranked UCLA Bruins will battle a tough Washington Huskies squad in a Pac-12 skirmish at the Rose Bowl on Friday.

Last weekend the Huskies got back to the type of success they had to begin the season as they posted 628 yards of total offense en route to a 59-7 rout of Colorado in Seattle. It was the fifth time this year the Huskies had surpassed 500 yards but the second time since doing so in the first three weeks of the campaign. Washington enters play on Friday with a 6-3 overall record, ensuring a bowl appearance.

As for UCLA, the Bruins have recovered from their stumbles at the end of October against Oregon and Stanford with back-to-back wins in the last two weeks. The most recent victory was a 31-26 triumph over a strong Arizona squad in Tucson. The surge from the Bruins has improved their overall record to 7-2 and to a No. 13 spot in the Top 25. None of that matters though as despite being eight spots ahead of Arizona State in the national rankings, the Bruins are still a game back of the Sun Devils in the Pac-12 South.

"I feel good. I think we are in second right now in the Pac-12 South and we'll get a chance to play ASU," UCLA quarterback Brett Hundley said. "Right now as long as we keep winning games we control our own destiny and where we are going."

Controlling their destiny will involve a challenge from Washington. Historically speaking, UCLA has the edge with 38 wins in 69 all-time meetings. However, last time these teams met, during the 2010 season, the Huskies grabbed a 24-7 victory.

To say that Washington dominated Colorado last week would be an understatement. The Huskies not only finished with 628 yards of total offense, they also held Colorado to just 299, while having a huge advantage in first downs (28-15) and a three-yard edge in yards per play.

Keith Price looked more comfortable under center than he has in some time as he threw for 312 yards and two touchdowns on 22-of-29 passing. Price has been dealing with a thumb issue all season but is still putting together an extremely efficient campaign. He is completing better than 65 percent of his pass attempts for 2,481 yards and 18 touchdowns, while only being picked off four times. Price seemed less affected by the nagging thumb injury against Colorado, which could spell big things for the Huskies on offense.

Bishop Sankey was another big part of the Washington offense against Colorado, as he has been all year. Sankey rushed for 143 yards and a touchdown on 23 carries. It was really just another day at the office for the Huskies' leading rusher. On the year, Sankey is averaging just under six yards per carry, while having racked up 1,305 yards and 13 touchdowns on 222 total attempts. Sankey is tied for the league lead in rushing touchdowns and is second in rushing yards per game (145) behind Arizona's Ka'Deem Carey.

Austin Seferian-Jenkins had one of his best games of the year as well against Colorado. The Washington tight end matched a season-high with 62 yards, while also scoring a touchdown on just three catches. Seferian-Jenkins (23 receptions, 306 yards, five TDs) has been one of Price's favorite targets in the red zone. Jaydon Mickens (50 receptions, 614 yards, four TDs) and Kevin Smith (35 receptions, 559 yards, three TDs) are other major targets especially with Kasen Williams out for the remainder of the season.

"When you lose Kasen, who is a talented guy especially on those one-on-ones, we found some things there to get (Seferian-Jenkins) some one-on-one opportunities," Washington head coach Steve Sarkisian said after the win over Colorado. "If the game hadn't gone the way it had gone, he probably would have gotten more."

As far as defense goes the Huskies are among the top half of the Pac-12, ranking fifth in yards allowed (381.9 ypg) and fourth in scoring defense (21.8 ppg). In the win over Colorado the unit looked better than it has all year in holding the Buffaloes to just 4.8 yards per play, while forcing three turnovers. Sean Parker had a sack and an interception, his team-leading fourth of the year. Hau'oli Kikaha (6.0 sacks) didn't get to the quarterback on Saturday but is the team's leading pass rusher.

There are so many strong offensive teams in the Pac-12 that even being in the upper half of the league in total offense, as UCLA is (463.6 ypg), still requires quite a potent attack. The Bruins have reaped the benefits on the scoreboard as well, averaging a healthy 36.6 points per game.

Multi-talented quarterback Brett Hundley is at the helm for the Bruins. Hundley had a solid game against Arizona, completing 18-of-25 pass attempts for 227 yards and two touchdowns. It was a nearly identical output from the previous week's win over Colorado. Consistency like that has been the norm for Hundley, who despite stumbles against Stanford and Oregon, has largely been as steady as any quarterback in the country. Overall this season he has thrown for 2,225 yards and 18 touchdowns, completing 68.5 percent of his pass attempts. There have been eight interceptions, but he has not had one in the past two games.

It would be difficult enough to defend Hundley if all he did was pass. Unfortunately for UCLA's foes, Hundley is a major threat on the ground. He has rushed for a team-high 487 yards and seven touchdowns this season and has had at least once score and 50 yards in the last three games. Paul Perkins (390 yards, three TDs) and Myles Jack, who rushed for 120 yards and a score on six carries in his first game of the season last week, man the backfield since Jordon James (471 yards, five TDs) has been out in four of the last five games due to injury.

The receivers on the end of most of Hundley's passes are Shaquelle Evans and Devin Fuller. Even though Fuller (36 receptions, 426 yards, four TDs) leads the team in catches, he was limited against Arizona as he had just nine yards on two receptions. Evans (34 receptions, 503 yards, seven TDs) is the bigger scoring threat as he leads the team in touchdown catches after his 97-yard, two-score performance against Arizona.

UCLA is a comparable team on the defensive side of the ball. The Bruins are allowing similar totals in yards (389.3 ypg) and points (22.9 ppg) on the campaign. Eric Kendricks (78 tackles) came back strong against Arizona after missing a game to record 13 total tackles. Meanwhile, Ishmael Adams (46 tackles, four INTs) is a playmaker on the outside and All-American Anthony Barr (13.0 TFL, 6.0 sacks) is a real force in the pass rush.

These teams are largely mirror images of each other. Each squad has a very effective offense led by two of the more consistent quarterbacks in the country. Scoring points won't be the issue for either team, but if Kendricks and Barr are able to create negative plays and pressure Price enough, the Bruins will have the edge, especially at home.

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